Brazil finished the Paris Olympics with 20 medals: 3 golds, 7 silvers and 10 bronzes. If we consider that the expectation was that Brazil would take home 7 gold medals, it is possible to say that the performance fell short of expectations.
The Brazilian Olympic Committee itself set the goal of improving numbers and breaking records in Paris. The country was just one medal away from the 21 in Tokyo in 2021. But it was far from the 7 golds it also won in the Japanese capital and in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
However, Brazil managed to stay at around 20 medals and competed for many more. According to figures from the COB itself, there were 11 competitions in which Brazilians finished in fourth or fifth place.
The most important of all was the increase in the participation of Brazilian women.
Even before the Paris Olympic Games began, Brazilian women were already making history. For the first time in over a hundred years of the country’s participation in the Olympics, the Brazilian delegation had more women than men: 163 against 126, a share corresponding to 56.4% of the total. At the end of the event, they showed that they were not just making up the numbers. Most of the twenty podiums achieved by the delegation were the result of women’s efforts.
To begin with, the three Brazilian gold medals in Paris were won by women: Beatriz Souza in judo, Rebeca Andrade in artistic gymnastics and the duo Duda and Ana Patrícia in beach volleyball. Twelve of the twenty medals went to female athletes. A thirteenth podium, that of the judo teams, was not 100% the work of women, but they did have a significant participation. Three years ago, in Tokyo, women’s podiums represented 43% of Brazil’s total. In Rio, there were eight, 26%.
Interestingly, they also stood out in the other medal categories: there were more silvers (four against three) and more bronzes (five against four) for women than for men.
But even with this progress by women, the final taste is a bit bitter, with disappointment mainly due to the few gold medals. The COB itself was unable to explain what happened, blaming it on “waves” and other weather setbacks.
There is a kind of warning sign already on for Los Angeles 2028.
Sources: ESPN Brasil and Agência Brasil